Thursday, 1 October 2015

On Wednesday, in Mumbai, Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar commissioned the Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kochi, a 6,800-tonne guided
missile destroyer that will be the tenth destroyer in the navy’s fleet.

A destroyer is a large, multi-role warship,
bigger than 6,500 tonnes. Their size lets them carry weaponry to engage varied threats.
INS Kochi will carry Brahmos cruise missiles to destroy enemy ships and shore
targets 295 kilometres away; Long Range Surface to Air Missiles (LR-SAM) to blast
incoming aircraft and anti-ship missiles out of the sky; and torpedoes and
rockets to engage enemy submarines. Each of these weapon systems is paired with
sophisticated sensors, such as radar and sonar.

Adding capability to INS Kochi’s sensors are
two on-board helicopters. One of them --- a Sea King or Kamov-28 is kitted for
anti-submarine warfare (ASW) with a dunking sonar that the helicopter lowers
into the water to detect giveaway sounds of enemy submarines. The other, a
Kamov-31, has airborne radar to detect enemy aerial targets at extended ranges.

INS Kochi is the second vessel of the
so-called Project 15A. Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the lead
destroyer, INS Kolkata, on August 16, 2014. Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai (MDL) is
building three destroyers under Project 15A for Rs 11,662 crore, almost Rs
3,900 crore per vessel.

That cost has ballooned from the originally
sanctioned Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 1,200 crore per vessel), even as the completion
date has slipped by six years from 2010 to 2016.

The final cost of Project 15A would only
become clear after the third destroyer, INS Chennai, is commissioned next year.
Despite the cost escalation, building warships in India continues to be significantly
cheaper than buying from abroad.

MDL is India’s only warship yard with the
capacity and capability to build destroyers. It is full to capacity. Even as the
Mumbai yard completes Project 15A, it has begun work on four more destroyers
under Project 15B, for Rs 29,348 crore (Rs 7,350 crore per vessel).

The first Project 15B destroyer, INS
Visakhapatnam, was launched into the water on April 20, towards a commissioning
date of July 2018. The next three will follow it at two-year intervals, i.e.
July 2020, 2022, and 2024.

As Business Standard reported (August 17,
2014, “PM talks tough, but new warship
lacks teeth”) INS Kolkata had joined the fleet without key defensive
systems against missiles and submarines. INS Kochi too has these operational
deficiencies.

However, naval and industry sources say one
delay is finally over. These destroyers will soon have a weapon system to
provide credible protection against the primary threat to large warships ---
sea-skimming, anti-ship missiles (like the Harpoon, or Exocet) fired from over 100
kilometres away by enemy aircraft, ships or submarines.

Protection against this threat will come
from the long-delayed LR-SAM, which Indian and Israeli engineers are finally close
to completing. Far surpassing the current generation of anti-missile missiles,
which have ranges of just 20-30 kilometres, the LR-SAM was designed to detect incoming
anti-ship missiles at ranges beyond 100 kilometres and destroy them in
mid-flight at ranges out to 70 kilometres.

Recent tests suggest this performance could
get even better. On September 25, authoritative defence blog Livefist reported
that the LR-SAM had successfully destroyed anti-ship missiles at ranges out to
90 kilometres, in recent tests in Israel.

If operationally deployed LR-SAMs can
replicate these test results, destroyers like INS Kochi would safeguard the entire
fleet with a vast protective bubble against anti-ship missiles.

Yet, the wait continues for another vital system:
“advanced towed array sonar” (ATAS), that is essential for detecting enemy
submarines in the warm, shallow waters of the Arabian Sea, where salinity and
temperature gradients baffle conventional “bow mounted sonar”, making Indian
warships blind to lurking enemy submarines.

An order has been placed with German
company, Atlas Elektronik, for six ATAS systems. These, however, are earmarked
for the three Delhi-class destroyers; and three Talwar-class frigates. The
defence ministry has failed to progress a second order for ten more ATAS
systems. These are earmarked for three Kolkata-class destroyers; three
Shivalik-class frigates, and four Kamorta-class corvettes that Garden Reach
Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata is building.

INS Kochi derives her name from the vibrant
port city of Kochi, which is home to the navy’s Southern Command. The ship’s
crest depicts a sword and a shield, with a snake boat riding the blue and white
ocean waves, symbolising the Malabar region’s rich maritime heritage. The
ship’s Sanskrit motto --- “Jahi Shatrun Mahabaho” --- means “Oh mighty armed
one… conquer the enemy”.

So it will come with a Barak 8. What is the short range air defence missile. Most ships of this class also carry short range air defence missile. Will the Kolkata class carry a mix of barak 1 and barak 8?

1. I understand that Indian research establishments have made consistent progress with the radar technology as evinced with the AEW&C that CABS is testing and the Uttam AESA for LCA. With the Navy going the indigenous road, why are the new destroyers under P15B still going for MFSTAR? Are airborne radars easier to develop than maritime ones?

2. India has not excelled in propulsion technology in most of the fields apart from Space launchers(which is creditable!!).I understand the jet engines like Kaveri are very complex to build for modern fighters but the naval propulsion systems that complex too?

THE NEW DESTROYER COMMISSIONED IS FITTED WITH A OUTDATED EARLY WARNING RADAR LW-02/04. THE ASW ROCKETS RBU-6000 OR 12000 ARE OBSOLETE AND HAVE A RANGE OF LESS THAN 6KMS . NO SUB EXCEPT A DAMAGED SUB WILL VENTURE SO NEAR A CARRIER OR ANY WARSHIP . THE 76MM GUN IS A MISFIT FOR A DESTROYER OF THIS SIZE . A 127MM SHOULD HAVE BEEN FITTED . THE AK-630 IS A 1970 TECHNOLOGY GUN AGAIN OUTDATED . A GUN MISSILE COMPLEX BASED ON THE RUSSIAN PANTSIR -1 SHOULD HAVE BEEN FITTED .